


Turntables

by sankontesu



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, How I hope episode 9 ends, a stupidly small oneshot, i want ben solo redemption sorry, oh how the turntables
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 17:17:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13058565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sankontesu/pseuds/sankontesu
Summary: Rejecting the awful gravitational pull to hold him flush against her proves to be difficult, but when she finally gets within arms-reach of him, she stops to wait for a reply.He swallows and she watches his Adam's apple move in sync with the motion.The first words to leave his mouth fall without effort, another plea but so unlike his previous one to her. Vulnerable and frightened and lacking all confidence.





	Turntables

Rey doesn’t know how she ended up on the island again. She had never planned to return; her goal was to find Luke and when she left on her mission to bring back Ben Solo (and failed), she did not plan on returning.

But after the last of the First Order was sentenced, and the Resistance turned their attentions to locating Kylo Ren after his hasty escape, she let the General and her friends know that she had to go take care of something. The words left her mouth before she had even decided that she was leaving, it was as if something deep inside of her was talking, filling in the blanks and gearing her towards the Falcon and putting her hands on the controls.

She remembered the coordinates, it wasn’t difficult to input into the navigation.

And then she was there.

Everything about the island was the same, the natives shook their heads disapprovingly at her, the porgs chirped and hummed at her arrival, and the sea monsters that gloomed in the back still gloomed in the back- even Luke’s presence hadn’t entirely gone away. She could still feel him all over the place, his light and his warmth a welcoming reception.

It had been years since their last encounter on the Cliffside, when she pinned him to the ground and demanded the truth. Years since she had wrongfully traded in her hope for Luke for her hope in Ben.

_I’m sorry_ , she thinks regretfully, suddenly feeling guilt the size of a bantha, sit on her sternum.

The force twists and bends around her, caressing her hair and tightening around her like an embrace.

_Don’t be_

* * *

She finds the tree- or what’s left of it. Rifles through the remains in hope of finding any tracing remain of the coveted relic texts, but the only thing within the blistered wood is a porg nest.

After the second week of searching and feeling lost, the aching void inside of her continues to go unfilled, while she continues to come up with no reason why she had been guided to return to this temple in the first place.

There is nothing for her here. She found her place in the balance of things years ago. Learned of her parents. Defeated the largest threat to the galaxy.

The force within her thrummed, almost in agitation at her own annoyance with it.

“What am I doing here?” She says out loud to no one, almost as if voicing her thoughts around her would persuade the answer from thin air.

But nobody responds, and the twinge of loneliness at her core numbs, quieting.

So Rey decides to leave.

She gathers her items, a bundle of clothes, her staff, her saber, and a few trinkets from the island, and begins the trek back to where she parked the Falcon. The natives are predictably excited at her farewell, forming a horizontal line behind her and making loud whopping noises, pointing at the Falcon behind her as if to say- _Yes! Go! Hop on that thing and get out of here!_ She rolls her eyes and lifts a hand to bid them goodbye.  

Her wave to them stops mid-air- the hair on the back of her neck rising like the haunches on a vulptice.

The force bond that she hasn’t felt stir in over a year, plucks like the string on a harp.

Her mouth goes dry when she turns around and realizes the natives weren’t acting enthusiastic and animated about her departure- there was a TIE silencer, cruising down from the sky and about to make a soft landing next to the Millennium Falcon.

* * *

Kylo Ren was sentenced to death without trial, it was a unanimous decision by the crumbs of the Republic and the General of the Resistance- whenever he was _found_ and brought in to custody. The decision was difficult on Leia, and Rey even had a feeling she was hoping he would never be located. Perhaps she silently hoped he’d find a lonely desolate chunk of rock in the universe to reflect on his mistakes and live out his life without interruption.

_Well, he found the wrong kriffing rock._

She had enough time to prepare facing him, she knew it was him from the moment she caught the black wings on his ship. But still, when he emerged from the latch all verbiage or form of offense vanished from her mind. A singular thread of thought cruised along the outer rim of her consciousness, small and unafraid.

He looked defeated in every sense of the word, tired and worn like a used up rag- the type she’d wipe grime off metal when she was on the western reaches of Jakku’. His gaze was no longer piercing, but fallen and disgraced, glazed over with a sincerity that crushes her resolve.

 She could kill him right now in this moment, had she wanted to. Perhaps with just a word.

* * *

 

“Ben.”

He blinks, regarding her with an open stare, and the bond between them strums; the void in their souls filling with something akin to coming home.

“What are you doing here?” She demands, her words cutting like jagged rocks despite how she continues to walk towards him.

Rejecting the awful gravitational pull to hold him flush against her proves to be difficult, but when she finally gets within arms-reach of him, she stops to wait for a reply.

He swallows and she watches his Adam’s apple move in sync with the motion.

The first words to leave his mouth fall without effort, another plea but so unlike his previous one to her. Vulnerable and frightened and lacking all confidence.

**“I need a teacher.”**

So Rey holds out her hand.

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Listen, where Ben once failed as a student to be guided into the Light, Rey teaches him and they succeed. You can't tell me this isn't how the movie will end, if it doesn't it's cancelled.


End file.
